Barney & Beyond At Kempton

There are three meetings taking place this afternoon with two of them over the sticks at Kempton and Plumpton as well as a flat card on the all weather at Wolverhampton.  The stable has a couple of runners at Kempton - bumper winner Barney Cool and useful flat stayer Beyond (pictured above).  Both of them can boast some good form, although they might both appreciate a sounder surface than they are going to get this afternoon.  The stable runners at Ascot on Saturday ran with credit in red-hot races - War Singer was only just run out of third place close home while Street Entertainer stayed on very strongly into fifth in the handicap hurdle, both of them picking up some prize money.

Can you believe that Lester Piggott is 77 today?  I saw Lester at the sales in France only last year and he looked just the same to me as he always did...mind you, he has looked the same since he was about 20!

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There is a bit of an anomoly at Plumpton this afternoon where the juvenile claiming hurdle is worth more that the handicap chase on the same card.  The winner of the claimer will receive £2053.20 while the winner of the handicap chase will pick up only £1949.40 (and the poor chaser has to run an extra ten furlongs further!) - I really do struggle to comprehend some of these statistics sometimes.

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On the football front, it is clear that Liverpool are still struggling to score goals - they drew at home to Newcastle at the weekend.  You might not like him but Luis Suarez does look like the best player in the Premiership right now - he produced a superb goal against Newcastle.  The question is, are Liverpool going to be able to hang onto him?  Without his contribution they would be dwelling towards the bottom of the league.

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Following his success in Montreal on Saturday, I see that Canadian boxer Lucian Bute now wants a rematch with Carl Froch.  If I were Froch I would gladly take him on again and have an easy payday!  Froch looks different class and does not get the credit that he deserves.